The use of toy or building blocks as an educational game has long been acclaimed as greatly beneficial to the development of children. In the late 17th century the renowned English philosopher John Locke himself mentioned that “dice and playthings, with letters in them to teach children the alphabet by playing” would make learning to read a more enjoyable experience.
The developmental merits of toy blocks have been extensively researched throughout the past centuries with studies going as far back as Maria and R. L. Edgeworth's Practical Education (1798) where they state that these consisted of “rational toys” which would aid a child to learn about gravity and physics as well as spatial relationships that would teach how many different parts become a whole.
Perhaps the most prominent educational benefits that come from playing with toy block are intellectual and creative. Intellectual benefits stem from the fact that children can develop their vocabularies as they learn to describe sizes, shapes and positions. Math skills are developed through the process of grouping, adding and subtracting, particularly with standardized blocks, such as unit blocks. Experiences with gravity, balance and geometry learned from toy blocks also provide intellectual stimulation. Creativity is also developed as children learn to make their designs and structures.
Despite the universal recognition and widespread use of toy blocks, little has been done to improve on the original design. Indeed, it appears that toy manufacturers and educators have yet to take advantage of advancements in technology that has come with the advent of the computer age.
Typically, computerized games provide players with a visual display of the game activity through an electronic display system such as a pixilated flat panel display or touch screens. Unfortunately, such displays lack a three-dimensional nature that prevents the physical interaction inherent in toys. For example, the traditional toy blocks may use one or more movable game piece that players (especially young ones) find more “natural” and easier to interact with during their play or learning experience. On the other hand, traditional toys often lack audio, visual or other forms of sophisticated feedback that computerized game play can offer to players. Therefore, a method that can combine both computerized technology and physical play can effectively enhance a player's experience by allowing their physical actions to be interpreted by a computer system so as to provide real-time feedback to the player in the form of a multitude of sensory accessories such as video and/or audio outputs.
The present invention allows recognition of multiple physical objects as well as their spatial distribution or structure, in association with various feedback mediums such as LED lighting, speakers or vibrators embedded within the object or a central device in order to communicate with the user. The invention allows for 3 dimensional structures to be physically created by a user and this structure and the individual components of this structure being recognized and located in real-time by a computer system and, in some cases, directed to perform certain actions individually or collectively according to a user-defined program.
The present invention allows creation of one or more objects that can effectively enhance traditional playing objects such as toy blocks by adding an interactive dimension to them. This also allows playing objects to be wirelessly connected to computer systems which, in turn, could be connected to the internet/servers, and thus adds another level of interactivity between the objects and the user.
Apart from the educational and entrainment benefits of having smart and interactive 3D-type of structures, there are a myriad of other potential appliances, applications and situations where efficiency and productivity can be enhanced through the use of such a novel technology.